Why does Dom turn bad in The Fate of the Furious?

Turns out there’s a very good reason that Dominic Toretto would go against his family from the other Fast & Furious films.

Note: This article contains massive spoilers for The Fate of the Furious. Read on only if you want to keep up with the series but have no plans on seeing the movie or just don’t like surprises for some reason.

Part of the marketing for The Fate of the Furious from the very beginning has been the shock value of seeing Dominic Toretto (played by Vin Diesel) as the bad guy. He’s not the main villain of the film — that would be Charlize Theron’s hacker goddess Cipher — but he’s definitely doing things you’d never expect to see Dom do.

Naturally, he didn’t just have a change of heart. It’s not a spoiler to say he’s coerced into going rogue, but the exact reason why is both logical and interesting if you’re a fan of the franchise.

Again, we’ll stress the massive spoilers if you continue …

Cipher takes great pains to figure out a way to approach Dom while he is on his honeymoon with Letty in Cuba. She leaves him with a phone after showing him an image that stops him in his tracks.

It isn’t until Dom has performed the first of his missions for Cipher that we find out what he saw. Cipher has taken Elena Neves hostage, as well as her young son: of which Dom is the father. Not surprisingly, Dom ends up having to play along with the villains, especially after they show they mean business by killing Elena.

In the climactic sequence of The Fate of the Furious, the baby is saved by Deckard Shaw, who has his own reasons to seek revenge against Cipher. Once Dom receives word that his son is okay, he quickly rejoins his team, who in turn save him from an exploding submarine.

Next: Does The Fate of the Furious have a post-credits scene?

Luckily for Dom, Letty assumed he was being blackmailed all along, and it appears the two of them will raise Brian (named in honor of Paul Walker’s character) together. There’s still the little matter of Dom helping assault a Russian diplomat and steal a nuclear football, but considering the pardons flow like water in Fast & Furious movies, we’ll assume that’s a bygone by the time Fast 9 arrives.